Cybersecurity Regulatory Compliance & GRC
Governance, policy, control design, regulatory mapping, remediation oversight, executive reporting, and sustainable compliance operating models.
01 Executive Cybersecurity, Risk & Compliance Advisory
Turn regulatory pressure and cyber risk into defensible business resilience.
Novara Group helps regulated and complex organizations assess risk, strengthen controls, respond to incidents, prepare for audits, preserve digital evidence, and implement practical cybersecurity improvements.
25+Years of experience
4,000+Controls evaluated
46Healthcare facilities assessed
About Novara Group
Independent advice. Enterprise perspective. Practical execution.
Novara Group, Inc. is an independent executive advisory organization focused on cybersecurity governance, regulatory compliance, enterprise risk, audit readiness, digital investigations, and strategic technology oversight.
We support organizations that need experienced guidance to translate complex requirements into clear priorities, defensible controls, measurable remediation, and sustainable operating practices.
Business-aligned Recommendations connect security decisions to operational and regulatory priorities.
Risk-based Work is prioritized according to impact, likelihood, evidence, and organizational tolerance.
Implementation-minded Advice is designed to move from assessment into accountable execution.
Advisory Capabilities
Integrated support across the cyber-risk lifecycle.
Focused services for organizations navigating regulatory scrutiny, audit demands, security incidents, litigation, transformation, and operational risk.
Cybersecurity Audits & Assurance
Audit readiness, control testing support, evidence validation, gap assessments, corrective-action governance, and SOC readiness.
02Data Breach & Incident Advisory
Executive incident coordination, breach-impact assessment, response governance, stakeholder communications, recovery planning, and lessons-learned reviews.
03eDiscovery & Digital Evidence
Digital evidence preservation, litigation-support workflows, defensible collection planning, review coordination, and technical fact development.
04Enterprise Risk Assessments
Integrated analysis of strategic, financial, operational, reputational, regulatory, credit, transaction, technology, and third-party risks.
05Security Control Implementation
Practical implementation and remediation support across identity, cloud, applications, APIs, infrastructure, data, vendors, and business processes.
06Executive & Regulatory Advisory
Board and C-suite advisory, risk decisions, regulatory response support, program strategy, governance design, and independent challenge.
07Cyber Recovery & Operational Resilience
Business continuity, disaster recovery, cyber-recovery planning, operational resilience, crisis exercises, and recovery governance.
08 Engagement Approach
Clarity and accountability at every stage.
Engagements can be structured as targeted assessments, remediation programs, independent advisory support, or longer-term transformation initiatives.
01
Discover
Understand objectives, stakeholders, regulatory drivers, systems, evidence, constraints, and current risks.
02
Assess
Evaluate controls, governance, maturity, exposure, documentation, and operating effectiveness.
03
Prioritize
Translate findings into risk-ranked decisions, accountable roadmaps, and executive-level reporting.
04
Implement
Support control design, remediation, technology changes, process improvement, testing, and evidence readiness.
05
Sustain
Establish metrics, governance routines, continuous monitoring, and repeatable assurance practices.
MBABusiness & technology leadership
Executive Profile
Alex Ali (Syed N. Ali)
Founder, CEO & Principal Cybersecurity and GRC Advisor
Senior cybersecurity, enterprise-risk, audit, privacy, and compliance leader with more than 25 years of experience supporting financial services, healthcare, technology, government, life sciences, and other regulated environments.
Experience spans executive advisory and hands-on delivery across cybersecurity engineering, GRC, IT audit, regulatory compliance, risk assessments, data-breach response, cyber recovery, eDiscovery, third-party risk, secure development, cloud security, infrastructure protection, and control implementation.
MBACISSPCISACISMCRISCCDPSEAssociate CCISO
Representative Experience
Selected engagements across regulated and complex enterprises.
Representative professional experience spanning cybersecurity engineering, GRC, audit readiness, privacy, application security, infrastructure protection, risk management, and operational resilience.
Navy Federal Credit Union
Cybersecurity Engineer VI
Enterprise cybersecurity engineering, governance, risk management, compliance support, security architecture, and cyber operations.
Cisco Systems
Security Risk & Compliance Consultant
Secure development validation, DevSecOps advisory, privacy-risk analysis, GRC collaboration, and cloud continuity planning.
Agilent Technologies
Senior Cybersecurity Advisor
GDPR, OneTrust, CSA CAIQ, third-party risk, privacy analysis, and enterprise risk-methodology improvement.
Synaptics
Senior Cybersecurity Consultant
Cloud and AWS migration assessments, ISO 27001 alignment, vendor risk, policy development, and executive reporting.
State Compensation Insurance Fund
Senior Security & GRC Consultant
PCI DSS, threat and vulnerability management, secure SDLC, audit support, vendor risk, training, and control mapping.
eBay
Senior Security & Compliance Advisor
Risk-register enhancement, PCI assessments, Archer GRC controls, SOC support, policies, and security roadmap development.
Gilead Sciences
Senior Security & Compliance Advisor
Security compliance, regulatory readiness, enterprise and third-party risk assessments, and configuration-control evaluation.
PwC / Dignity Health
PCI DSS Assessor
PCI DSS assessments across 46 healthcare facilities, HIPAA process reviews, records management, and awareness support.
Client and company names identify representative professional experience. They do not imply current affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, or an ongoing client relationship with Novara Group, Inc.
Enterprise Risk Coverage
Cybersecurity in the context of total enterprise risk.
Security decisions are more effective when assessed alongside financial, operational, strategic, legal, regulatory, and reputational consequences.
Strategic RiskFinancial RiskOperational RiskReputational RiskCompliance & Regulatory RiskCredit RiskTransaction RiskTechnology RiskThird-Party RiskPrivacy Risk
Frameworks, Regulations & Tools
Broad control and regulatory coverage.
Support across U.S. and international requirements, security standards, maturity models, assurance programs, and GRC technologies.
Frameworks & Regulations
NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF)NIST SP 800-53 / RMFNIST SP 800-171ISO/IEC 27001 & ISO/IEC 27002ISO/IEC 42001:2023ISO 22301COBITCMM / CMMISOX 404 / ITGCJ-SOXSOC 1, SOC 2 & SOC 3 readinessPCI DSSHIPAA / HITECHGLBAGDPRCCPA23 NYCRR Part 500Directive (EU) 2022/2555 (NIS2)FDA-regulated environmentsCSA CAIQOWASP Top 10 Web, API & Cloud Risks
Platforms & Assessment Solutions
Archer GRC
OneTrust
BitSight
Drata
ServiceNow GRC
Splunk
Forescout
Cisco NAC
Cloud security assessment methods
SSA Tool
SAQ Tool
Threat Modeling
STRIDEDREADPASTATRIKEVAST
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Important Information
The content on this website is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal, tax, financial, investment, accounting, brokerage, or other regulated professional advice. Novara Group, Inc. is not a law firm, and use of this site does not create an attorney-client, fiduciary, agency, employment, partnership, or advisor-client relationship.
Cybersecurity, audit, compliance, risk, incident-response, eDiscovery, and implementation services depend on the scope of a written engagement and the information available at the time. No specific security, legal, regulatory, audit, litigation, recovery, or business outcome is guaranteed.